


Harry in a Hole

by marysiak



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Mud, Near Death Experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-06-06 00:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6731197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marysiak/pseuds/marysiak
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has fallen in a muddy hole and he can't get out.  Will Draco Malfoy save him? Of course not. Starts humorous, ends serious. Mild violence and swear words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harry in a Hole

**Author's Note:**

> Started in 2003, finished in 2016. Found this in an old notebook of mine. The idea came from a friend of mine who literally fell in a very similar hole while wandering around near the River Thames. This is probably set in book 3 or 4, but really it could be any time from book 3-5. The time of year is however early December.

The thing about being in a hole, up to your thighs in the muddiest mud imaginable, was that after a while it was really bloody cold.

He wasn't sure how long it had been, maybe half an hour, it felt like longer. He couldn't stop shivering. He was tired of standing up, tired of it being so dark he couldn't see anything no matter how hard he looked. He wanted to sit down but if he did his head would be under the mud and it hadn't been long enough yet to consider that a viable option.

He took a deep breath and again shouted, "Hello? Can anyone..." he broke off into a cough. His voice was raw with shouting.

This sucked. He'd lost his wand in the mud and one of his shoes as well.

He had a strange primal urge to shout out for Ron's Mum or Madame Pomfrey or even Professor McGonagall. He wanted to be coddled. He was wet and cold and sore and on the verge of having a good cry and he wanted blankets and hot chocolate and a hot water bottle and a hug.

He sniffled, feeling his lower lip tremble a little.

"Is anybody there?" he croaked. "Please?"

"Who's there?" he heard a voice ask suspiciously from far above. "Show yourself."

Harry gasped. "Here!" he squawked. "I'm down here! Hello?"

He saw light from above and could finally make out how far he had fallen, the ground was about 10 feet above his head. He squinted as the light shone in his eyes.

"Potter?" said the voice. "Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me."

"What are you doing down a hole?"

Harry suddenly recognised that lazy, drily amused voice. It was Malfoy.

"Shit!" said Harry. "Not you."

"Oh, I am sorry. Am I bothering you? I'll just be on my way then."

"No!" Harry actually reached out as if he could physically stop him. "Wait. I didn't mean that."

"Oh, you didn't."

"Could you maybe go and get someone?"

"That's a thought. I'm sure Crabbe and Goyle would hate to miss this."

"I mean a teacher! Hagrid, you could get Hagrid."

"That oaf, I don't think so. You still haven't told me how you ended up down there. I'm simply dying to know."

"I fell, how do you think I got down here?"

"Oh, I don't know. The famous Harry Potter. I thought maybe you were trying to rescue a lost kitten, or perhaps you were pushed in by Death Eaters, or it could have been a tragic attempt to take your own life and escape the rigours of worldwide fame..."

"Shut up, Malfoy!"

"Well, that's not very nice."

"Why don't you do something helpful like conjure up a rope?"

"Because watching you wallow around in the mud down there is far too amusing."

Harry gathered up a handful of the mud and tried to chuck it at Malfoy, but he was too cold and stiff to get it that high.

"If you don't try being more polite you're going to be down that hole a long time," Malfoy remarked primly. "What happened to your wand?"

"It's in the mud somewhere," Harry answered glumly. "I can't find it."

"Well you've really done it, haven't you?" Malfoy remarked. "Stuck down a hole with no wand and no one to save you."

"So you're not going to then," said Harry with resignation.

"Oh definitely not," said Malfoy, and Harry could hear him getting up from where he'd been kneeling down to peer into the hole. "This may possibly be the best thing that's happened to me all y...awk!"

Malfoy's wand suddenly winked out and above Harry there was a flurry of scrabbling movement. Then Harry was knocked off his feet by something large and heavy. He fell back into the mud and it took him several panicked moments to untangle himself from the kicking writhing body that had landed on him pushing him deep under the deep clinging muck.

He surfaced gasping and got as far away as possible from what he presumed was Malfoy. Seconds later he heard the the other person draw in a gulping panicked breath and begin to hack and spit out mud. Since he didn't seem to be dying, Harry left him to it.

Once he was done, Harry asked quietly, "So I don't suppose you still have your wand do you?"

Malfoy said nothing. Harry could barely tell where he was, but the noise of glooping movement indicated he was backing away from Harry, as far as was possible in a hole that was only about 5 feet across at most.

"That a no then?"

"I fucking dropped it when I was trying to grab onto the edge of the fucking hole!" Malfoy snarled, clearly furious now that he had stopped drowning.

Harry started to laugh.

"What the fuck is so funny?"

"I'm stuck in a hole," Harry spluttered, "With you. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy stuck in a hole, full of mud, in the middle of the night." He kept laughing and shivering and laughing.

"You're hysterical. Stop it, it's making me nervous."

"You stop it."

"That doesn't even make sense."

Harry kept laughing, it was at least warming him up a bit.

\--  
**Half an hour later**

Malfoy had spent about fifteen minutes looking for wands in the mud and then another fifteen minutes shouting. Pretty much what Harry had done in his first half hour down here. For his part Harry leaned silent and shivering against the muddy wall.

Finally Malfoy was shouted out and he turned to him and spat out slightly hoarsely, "This is your fault, Potter. If you weren't stupid enough to fall in a hole this would never have happened!"

Harry shrugged even though Malfoy couldn't see him in the dark. "Well, if you'd helped get me out, instead of planning to leave me here, maybe you wouldn't have fallen in!"

"Why is this hole even here! My father will sue the school for this!" Malfoy sulked.

"Your father is an arsehole."

"Don't you dare talk about my father, Potter!"

"And who's going to stop me, you? Your father is a manipulative bastard and a thoroughly evil git and I hope he falls in a hole twice as deep as this one," Harry informed him with great satisfaction.

Suddenly there was a deal of splashing and cursing as Malfoy attempted to hurl himself at Harry, but found that moving anywhere fast in thigh deep mud was essentially impossible. He heard a louder splash that showered him in yet more cold water.

Since Harry couldn't feel his feet any more he decided to move and help pull Malfoy out of the mud again. He needed to do something to warm himself up.

He found him by touch and hauled him above the surface by the scruff of his neck. For a moment Malfoy clung onto him as he regained his feet. Then he let go, but before Harry could step back Malfoy punched him wildly. Catching him a glancing blow to the jaw but mostly hitting him muddily in the neck.

"Ow," shouted Harry. "Cut it out, you moron. In case you didn't notice I was helping you."

"That was for my father," Malfoy said breathlessly.

"Fine," said Harry and promptly punched him right in the mouth. "That was for Buckbeak." he told him giving his hand a quick shake. Then he punched him again, "And that was for not helping me out of here."

Being much closer this time, Malfoy was significantly more successful in throwing himself at Harry and he knocked him off his feet and both of them landed in the mud, struggling together.

Harry closed his mouth tightly against the mud, but Draco's hands were around his throat and his weight on top of them made it impossible to lift himself back up. He was actually starting to panic, although surely Malfoy was sinking under the mud himself. His lungs were burning as he tried to pull himself together. He pulled at Malfoy's hands and tried to kick at him. Just when he thought Malfoy was actually going to succeed where Voldemort had failed his knee made contact with something and Malfoy's hands were pulled away.

Harry managed to struggle back to the surface and get some air. He could hear Malfoy gasping as well in what sounded like considerable agony. He hadn't thought he'd managed to knee him that hard. He wiped mud out of his eyes and snorted it out of his nose.

"You bastard pixiefucker," Malfoy swore. "Low life, mudblood loving, shit eating..."

"You swear a lot more than I thought you would," Harry commented.

"You would bloody swear too if someone had just kicked you in the bollocks," Malfoy hissed.

"Oh," said Harry. That did rather explain things. He grinned to himself, he hadn't done it on purpose but he no way regretted it. "You were trying to drown me."

\--  
**One hour later**

They had been sulking and avoiding each other for a long time. A long cold time. Every now and then one of them would summon up the energy to do a bit of yelling for help. But less and less as time went on.

Harry felt deeply sleepy. His legs were numb nearly all the way up and he'd stopped shivering some time ago. He had a vague idea that it wasn't a good sign, when you stopped shivering. But he was so tired he almost didn't care.

He was slumped against the wall now, so that the mud was waist deep. Every now and then his feet would slip a bit more and sometimes he would try and correct them and sometimes he wouldn't.

He had been able to hear Malfoy's teeth chattering every now and then until about quarter of an hour ago.

I'm going to die down here, he thought. Slowly. Everything in his head was happening so slowly now. I'm going to die and Malfoy is probably going to die too.

He thought about that numbly.

It took him another five minutes to get himself to move. Forcing himself to his feet, forcing his feet to wade through the mud. It took a long time to get to where he thought Malfoy was. His hands reaching out in front of him until he found wet cloth.

Malfoy didn't react to being grabbed hold of. That probably wasn't a very good sign either.

"Malfoy," he muttered. His lips were numb too and they didn't move properly.

"Hmm," said Malfoy. One of his hands finally came up and took Harry's wrist.

Harry tried to think. Malfoy's hand felt as cold as the mud.

"We need... we need to do something," Harry managed.

"Got any suggestions," Malfoy replied, the final word slurred.

Harry tried to think, but all that came out was, "'m tired." He leaned his head against Malfoy's shoulder.

"Me too."

"I think..." Harry paused for a long time, then finally forced the words out. "Think we're going to die."

"No," said Malfoy unconvincingly.

"Yeah. Not... not what I... was expecting," Harry managed.

They were silent for a long time and then Harry heard a choked sob. Malfoy was crying, his hand tight around Harry's wrist. And Harry supposed that after all, Malfoy was just a boy too. Who hadn't expected to die in the mud in a hole without even finishing school.

Strangely, Harry hadn't felt like crying since Malfoy had fallen in too. It was being alone that had made him feel so upset. Dying was something he had always assumed would happen to him young, like his parents. Not this young, not this way. But still. He wasn't afraid of dying, really. But he felt bad for Malfoy, despite everything.

He found Malfoy's head with one hand and pulled him closer. "'m sorry."

"I hate you," Malfoy choked through his tears. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you so much." But his hand never left Harry's wrist and his other hand had come up to cling onto him as tight as it could too. His face was in Harry's neck and his tears were the first warm thing Harry had felt in over an hour.

He almost didn't hear it at first, it was so faint and Malfoy was still crying in his ear.

"Harry!?" the call floated through the air from far away.

He thought he was imagining it. He smiled at the thought of being rescued without really believing it could be happening. A dream in his slowly freezing brain. He was still smiling, stroking Malfoy's wet, muddy hair, when he heard it again. Closer and louder.

"Harry?!"

It was Hermione's voice. Harry jerked in shock and let go of Malfoy. "Hermione," he tried to shout. It came out as a weak call and he tried harder. "Hermione!"

"Harry?"

"Here," Malfoy shouted as well. "We're here!"

Harry stumbled back from Malfoy, looking up at the sky and nearly falling backwards from the effort of it.

"Careful," he heard Hagrid's voice shout. "I dug a big hole over there, for the dugbogs. They like a dark muddy hole they do."

"We're in the bloody hole," Draco managed to shout in frustration.

After that it was only a matter of moments before Hermione and Hagrid had pulled them both out and summoned Harry's wand from the depths of the mud. Malfoy's had been lying on the ground only a foot away from the edge of the pit.

As Hermione ran off to fetch Madame Pomfrey, Malfoy leaned over and hissed at him, "Not a word, ever."

Harry looked at him and just shook his head. He was too tired and numb to point out that crying because you were going to die was nothing to be ashamed of. That maybe they could take this chance to stop fighting. But what was the point. Malfoy was Malfoy. As soon as he was warm enough to manage it he'd be back to trying to hex them.

Malfoy was still glaring at him.

"Whatever, Malfoy," he said.

Then Hagrid was apologising for leaving the hole unprotected and he was distracted trying to say it was okay, even though it really wasn't, and Hermione was back with Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape on her heels and there was nothing else worth saying.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes on hypothermia in these conditions. Immersed in cold water at a temperature of 3-10 degrees Celsius (as the mud in this case is intended to be) you would die of hypothermia within 1-3 hours. The boys are only thigh deep but they are both slender and therefore have low body weight/body fat. I wouldn't expect them to last longer than two hours, which is how long Harry has been there before they are rescued.


End file.
